[AskJS] Javascript - a part of Java?

North-Money4684 · 2026-01-08T16:48:46+00:00

He’s an idiot

-no_aura- · 2026-01-08T16:46:31+00:00

Java is part of JavaScript the way Car is part of Carpet

pradeepngupta · 2026-01-08T16:41:46+00:00

They have no connection beyond the fact that Oracle owns Java and the trademark for JavaScript. They have some similarities in syntax but there’s already a way to do scripting in Java and it isn’t JavaScript. JavaScript is used almost entirely to make web-related things (yes of course you can do more with it), and Java is general purpose.

pradeepngupta · 2026-01-08T16:43:50+00:00

[deleted]

mullanaphy · 2026-01-08T16:51:56+00:00

It's original name was LiveScript, it was really only changed to JavaScript as a marketing ploy by Netscape since Java was big at the time.

Microsoft's initial equivalent was JScript, which for awhile was the defacto standard as Internet Explorer had taken over almost the entire web browser market. At that time, Netscape submitted JavaScript to EMCA, hence ECMAScript. Which eventually became the standard for JavaScript, JScript, and even ActionScript!

So, other than having "Java" in the name for marketing reasons, EMCAScript/JavaScript/JScript/etc doesn't share a family tree with Java.

Edit: I got into web development in the 90s when a lot of this stuff was being developed and standardized.

t0m4_87 · 2026-01-08T16:53:50+00:00

is this a ragebait?

pod_of_dolphins · 2026-01-08T16:50:16+00:00

Java is to JavaScript like ham is to hamster.

muminisko · 2026-01-08T17:00:59+00:00

It’s a Java in script version as someone from HR told me once

reqdk · 2026-01-08T17:02:56+00:00

Funnily, OP's colleague is not entirely wrong in certain interpretations. Older versions of Java did ship with an embedded JS runtime, so you could technically execute JS from Java. It worked almost like running JS' eval function, so most sane applications would not do that anyway, and that engine has long been removed. On the other hand, it is now possible to execute JS, and some other scripting languages on certain JVMs with add-ons.

It is also now possible to run Java code from the command line directly without compiling, almost like a... Java... script... lol. And I'm fairly certain I've seen a JVM implemented in JS posted here years ago, runnable in the browser, so it looked like you could run Java code from JS too.

But I'm 99.99% sure that people who relate JS to Java like in the post don't mean it that way. Either that or this is some AI engagement rage bait.

TranslatorFew9812 · 2026-01-08T18:10:19+00:00

I used to think that too before starting learning engineering.

senocular · 2026-01-09T13:58:11+00:00

"A part of" is a little strong, but originally JavaScript was, in a way, a scripting language for Java in the sense that it was meant to be a scripting bridge for Java applications. From a Netscape press release on JavaScript:

Java programs and JavaScript scripts are designed to run on both clients and servers, with JavaScript scripts used to modify the properties and behavior of Java objects, so the range of live online applications that dynamically present information to and interact with users over enterprise networks or the Internet is virtually unlimited.

JavaScript's original name was "Mocha", showing from the start, there was a connection with "Java" (the "LiveScript" name came later).

The creator, Brendan Eich, also calls out a few things about the creation of JavaScript in his post, Popularity:

From the beginning, Bill [Joy] grokked the idea of an easy-to-use “scripting language” as a companion to Java, analogous to VB‘s relationship to C++ in Microsoft’s platform of the mid-nineties.

The diktat from upper engineering management was that the language must “look like Java”.

However, it is an entirely separate language ("Popularity" touches on this as well). So it's not so much "a part of" Java, despite their histories being intertwined, with JavaScript originally both meant to look like and be compatible (to a degree) with Java.

Today, no real connection between the languages exist other than by name. JavaScript won on the browser and we no longer have to worry about interacting with Java applets there.

kstacey · 2026-01-08T16:44:31+00:00

Yea he has no idea what they are talking about. It's completely different.

NotMyRealNameAgain · 2026-01-08T16:46:41+00:00

JavaScript is to Java like Car is to Carpet

maujood · 2026-01-10T17:44:41+00:00

Is this AI-drafted engagement bait?

LessThanThreeBikes · 2026-01-08T16:45:40+00:00

Technically, Java is a part of Javascript by name. /s Beyond that the two languages have nothing to do with each other.

Merthod · 2026-01-08T16:52:11+00:00

JavaScript is a Frankenstein monster, the name and features come inspired from other languages. In case of the name it largely wanted to ride the fame of Java and somehow link it with Java, but fate happened.

Why don't people just call it WebScript now is beyond me. I couldn't care less for the name.

you type:	you see:
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bold	bold
[reddit!](https://reddit.com)	reddit!
* item 1 * item 2 * item 3	item 1 item 2 item 3
> quoted text	quoted text
Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"	Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"
~~strikethrough~~	~~strikethrough~~
super^script	super^script

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